Santa brought me Paul Hollywood’s book “How to bake”. The chap might not be my favourite man on the tv, but he certainly knows his baking and the book is packed with useful information. The first recipe I tried from it were scones. Kitchen aid sat this one out, as I actually did as I was told and used my fingers to mix the flour and butter and then the rest of the ingredients and made sure I’m not overworking the dough. I ended up with a plate of scones much lighter than the shop bought ones, a few too many though, maybe 500 g of flour will not be needed next time, unless there will be more than 2 people eager to eat them.

450g of strong white bread flour was used, rubbed with 80 g of unsalted, soft butter ( I might use salted next time), 80 g of caster sugar, 2 beaten eggs, 5 tsps of baking powder and a bit less than 250 ml of milk. The remaining 50 g of flour was to be used for dusting and adjusting the runny batter as required, but I ended up putting most of it back into the bag and not using all of the milk. As above, it is important not to overwork the dough, which I was careful not to do, when ready, I cut out the scones with round cookie cutter, placed on the baking parchment, gently washed the tops with beaten egg and baked for about 12 minutes in 220 degrees.

Served warm with French butter and blackcurrant conserve.

When browsing Amazon lately I came across some cherry curd, but also a passion fruit curd, promptly purchased both and I don’t regret it! Cherry macaroons were made yesterday, shells done the usual way with the colour nothing like I wanted it, the filling- half and half cherry curd and mascarpone, plus a bonus of a cherry in kirch in the middle. Just had one of them with a quick espresso on Saturday morning, love it. Next week I’ll make some mega yellow ones with passion fruit.

There was a bag of whole hazelnuts I bought in Biedronka, while visiting Mum a month ago. I toasted them this morning, removed the skins, blitzed them with icing sugar and made some really, really decent macaroons. I was planning on replacing some of that icing sugar with cocoa, but realized too late and only managed to add some cocoa, for the colour. Still, the shells made with hazelnuts and just a few grams of almonds taste great and smell fantastic. I filled them up with a combo of whipped cream and Philadelphia cheese ( who said it’s got to be mascarpone every time??), added vanilla paste and then a splash, or was it two? Of Baileys. I froze 20 shells ready for Christmas, but will also make some bright ones, red maybe or purple. Today’s efforts will be enjoyed while watching the heats of Masterchef the Professionals tonight. 🙂

Autumn has truly arrived now and we’ve had a very blustery, rainy day, with overturned pots in the garden and tons of leaves from apple tree falling. The only thing to do was to draw the curtains and get busy in the kitchen. So I’ve made something nice for everyone, pancakes, tuna steak, shrimps, but also a focaccia, a very nice one, only a quarter left of it now. I looked at Paul Hollywood’s recipe and at one from my Italian cookbook and ended up kind of mixing them both. I used a bit more that 260 g of strong bread flour, 14 g of fresh yeast, which I first prepared with some flour and warm water. A tsp of salt and a tbsp of olive oil. 200 ml of water. I also added 2 ground cloves of garlic to the dough, but I have to say I can’t taste any!

Kitchen aid did all the work of kneading. It proved for almost an hour till more than doubled in size. I knocked it back and placed in a well oiled tray, pushed it to the corners nicely and proved once again for about half an hour. When beautifully risen, I sprinkled some flaky salt on top, some black olives and pieces of tomatoes went on, a dusting of dry oregano, a drizzle of olive oil and into the oven heated to 200 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Very difficult to keep one’s claws off it, when on the table. Excellent with a glass of red.

I got out of the bed with wrong foot this morning, I hated everything and everyone, nothing was right and then I accidentally tipped the bin onto the floor and had to scrub all sorts of yuk off the floor. And then I decided to bake something good, I needed a lift from this morning. It’s been a while since doughnuts were made in this house, so I went with the same recipe from moje wypieki.com that worked, but not a third of the portion, half a portion this time and still ended up with 19 doughnuts. Deliberately, Keava got 5, as she now looks after Dusty when we go away and then Charlie got 4, Charlie, my fresh farm egg supplier. Young chap looked into the bag and said “woooooooow….tea!!!!!” 🙂

So, for this many fabulous, soft, fragrant and delicious doughnuts one needs 500 g of flour, 11 g of fresh yeast, 60 g of sugar, 250 ml of warm milk, 4 egg yolks, 50 g of melted butter, some vanilla paste, 20 ml of vodka,1/4 tsp of salt and a little lemon juice and zest too. Yeast got to work with some of that flour, sugar and milk, the all the other ingredients worked away in the kitchen aid, butter waiting towards the end to be slowly added. The dough proved for 1,5 hour, more than doubled. Got knocked down, rolled thickly and with a cookie cutter 19 doughnuts were formed. Again, 30 mins proving and then onto the veg oil heated up to 175 degrees. Once fried, plum conserve was injected in each, some icing and a few sprinkles of dried raspberry completed the picture. Premier League. Brawo ja! 🙂

Last week Florek ordered one of these in Cote and we loved it. It looked simple enough for a confident cook to try and bake, so I tried- and I succeeded!The recipe I found in BBC Good Food was a red onion and gruyere fougasse, there was some rosemary there too. Not my favourite herb, far too strong and fragrant, so I used a little of my fresh oregano from the garden and also the remaining piece of comte cheese.

It’s not a complicated thing; 250 g of strong bread flour, 8 g of fresh yeast crumbled in. 1 tsp of salt, 0,5 tsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of olive oil. 200 ml of warm water, one needs to be careful though, as the mixture is extremely wet and fiddly, I added about 2 more tbsps of flour to get it together, so probably about 150 ml would do. Kitchen Aid worked it for a few minutes, then I left it under cling film for an hour, shaped it into a leaf and got it ready for baking:

Some rock salt was sprinkled on top, as well as a brush of garlic olive oil. 220 degrees, 12-15 minutes.

It’s lovely and will be made again, but it’s a great idea to brush with olive oil again AFTER baking. Great starter. 🙂

Like I said in the last post, I need to be careful with all those butter cookies. I was so careful this morning, that I baked some more. But I had to, really, no choice, as last night in Polish Deli I found some good quality jam with forest fruit, bought 2 jars and simply had to try to recreate the cookies from Conad in Gallicano.

The shortbread recipe is the same as in the double dipped cookies, with 30 g less sugar. Good call, I think, while munching on one of them now, the jam is quite sweet, so the shortbread didn’t have to be. 200 g softened salted butter, 70 g of icing sugar creamed in kitchen aid with vanilla paste, 250 g of plain flour, 2 tbsps of milk. Half of the cookies cut with apple corer….:-) 160 degrees, 15 minutes. Sandwiched with the jam, gently softened now. Delicious.

I need to be careful with the amount of butter cookies I consume lately, my weight and figure are both very pleasant at the moment, must make sure they stay this way.

I couldn’t resist this recipe though, I even purchased a small jar of Nutella, though none of us is a massive fan in this house- and then ended up not using any!!! The original recipe makes these cookie sandwiches filled with Nutella, but in my view they stand their ground so well, they don’t need anything else. I gave some to Keava and Simon, who will look after Dusty this weekend.

120 g of soft butter creamed with the same amount of brown and caster sugar, which I reduced from the original, I think 175 g of sugar altogether is a bit silly. 1 whole beaten egg, 200 g of plain flour, less than half a tsp of bicarb soda, then 70 g of chopped, toasted hazelnuts and 100 g of chopped milk chocolate. That made a nice, thick cookie dough, which I spooned onto the baking trays and baked for 10 minutes in 180 degrees. Once I tasted the first one, Nutella went back to the pantry, which is where it will stay for now.

Excellent cookies. 🙂

Great British summer is in full swing, 2 days of rain and gusty winds, what can one do if not bake. Butter cookies always go down well with us, so I baked the first one of 2 recipes today, the second one, with hazelnuts maybe tomorrow. Very simple recipe-200 g of softened salted butter beaten in kitchen aid with 100 g of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla paste added, then 250 g of plain flour slowly in, 2 tbsps of milk. When ready, to the piping bag with a wide nozzle. Squeezing the dough onto the baking paper was quite an effort, but I managed, then baked them in 160 degrees for about 15 minutes. When cooled, they were dipped in melted white and milky chocolate.

I find them a touch too sweet, but might try to do something similar to what I bought in Italian Conad last month, butter cookies stuffed with a nice, thick frutti di bosco marmalade. Those were great. I’d just have to find a jam good enough to use for this.

The kind of bake I love to bake! Quick, easy, tastes great, seasonal. From mojewypieki.com. I intended to bake those yesterday, but as a certain Siemens engineer ruined our whole day ( failed to turn up for a SECOND appointment to install smart meters, clearly got mega bollocked by his boss after our phonecall, kindly turned up at 4pm and stayed for 1,5 hour having turned off the electricity- no oven), it all got postponed till today. Had to get more raspberries too as the child demanded some for her porridge this morning.

300 g of plain flour, 2 tsps of baking powder, 0,5 tsp of baking soda, 130 g of sugar. A zest of 1 whole lemon. 2 beaten eggs, 250 ml of natural yoghurt- that’s the only thing natural yoghurt is good for, baking, otherwise vile! :-). Half a tall glass of veg oil. All the ingredients gently and briefly mixed together, only to combine, overmixing results in muffins that are all but light. And at the end about 320 g of fresh raspberries in. Into the muffin cases, into the oven, 175 degrees, 25 minutes. Finished with a simple lemon icing- mental amount of icing sugar + lemon juice added until the texture is thick, but still runny.

5 of the muffins went to the Dewicks, as little Ruby has chicken pox.

The guest photo today is by Richard! 🙂